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Phoenix grab draw with 10-man Heart

Guy Hand

Wellington Phoenix is without doubt the A-League's unsung hero factory.

Minus seven players and their coach on international duty, they produced more of the against-the-odds heroics they produce regularly for a gritty 1-1 draw with Melbourne Heart at AAMI Park on Sunday.

Now the Phoenix believe it's time for everyone to consider them serious silverware threats, rather than constant surprise packets, after they maintained their unbeaten start to the season.

"We've always had that ability. We've got to three finals (in the past three years), we've got that belief, and we're getting to the stage now we want finals to be a minimum for us," Phoenix caretaker coach and former player Chris Greenacre said.

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"We want to turn that to the flipside of you guys saying 'the Phoenix are a force to be reckoned with'. Like they do with the Victory or Brisbane.

"We're trying to create a culture where we're always going to be there or thereabouts year-in, year-out."

With recently-retired player Greenacre taking charge in regular coach Ricki Herbert's absence with the New Zealand team, the Phoenix had to ride their luck at times.

Heart looked on track to add to their opening week win in the first half, taking a 20th minute lead through a superb Matt Thompson goal and dominating the opening 45 minutes.

Fullback Aziz Behich won a ball deep in defence, ran 70m and crossed to midfielder Fred, who laid the ball back for Thompson to drive home.

But the Heart were reduced to 10 men just after the break when Simon Colosimo was sent off for a deliberate handball in giving away a penalty.

Paul Ifill banged home the resulting spot-kick to level the scores, and the game changed complexion markedly.

After a good patch in which they could have got a goal up, the Phoenix then withstood the Heart to ensure a deserved share of the points.

Defender Michael Boxall was Phoenix's hero, clearing a Dylan Macallister chance off the line with 13 minutes left - the Heart's best chance of a winner.

Both the Phoenix and Heart have a win and a draw from their opening two matches of the season.

Heart coach John Aloisi was disappointed his side couldn't take all three points, lamenting their lack of precision in front of goal in the first half.

"We should have had it wrapped up, but those things happen. If you don't kill teams off you can let them in," Aloisi said.